SOURCE: Boston Scientific

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Boston Scientific has been recognized with a Bronze Edison Award in the Science & Medical category for its Tria™ Ureteral Stent, the first stent made with a proprietary surface technology designed to provide protection against the accumulation of both urine calcium and magnesium salt deposits. [i]

Every year, the Edison Awards honor innovators who demonstrate the highest levels of new product development with revolutionary, human-centered designs. The awards symbolize the persistence and excellence personified by Thomas Edison and his Menlo Park team who successfully brought an unprecedented number of innovations to the market.

Ureteral stents are commonly used in patients with kidney stones, as they allow urine to flow through the ureter around obstructions that block its flow.[ii] However, urine calcium and magnesium salt deposits often contribute to stent complications, potentially leading to adverse effects including pain, infection and irritative urinary symptoms.[iii] The Tria™ Ureteral Stent is the first stent to include a tri-layer design that incorporates a proprietary surface technology engineered onto the outer and inner stent surfaces.[i] This technology is designed to resist these urine calcium and magnesium salt deposits, and in vitro studies of the Tria™ Stent have demonstrated a reduction of both.[i]

“When we set out to design a new and improved ureteral stent, our goal was to consider urologists’ greatest challenges and solve those issues with an innovative approach that keeps patient safety in mind,” said Ewa Klimczak, project manager, Urology and Pelvic Health. “Knowing that even minor stent blockages or excess salt accumulation can lead to painful, adverse events for patients, we developed a proprietary technology called PercuShield™ to address the problem,” added John Goncalves, Senior Engineer, Urology and Pelvic Health Research and Development, Boston Scientific. “PercuShield is embedded directly onto both the outer and inner stent base material surfaces and has been shown in bench studies to decrease calcium and magnesium salt accumulation by up to 60% compared to competitive stents.”*

Nominations for the Edison Awards receive an unbiased, high-powered, focus group review by the Edison Awards Steering Committee, comprised of hand-picked industry experts from a spectrum of disciplines.

Learn more about Tria Ureteral Stents.

To see the full list of Edison Awards winners, click here.

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*Study methodology

• Testing was performed by an independent third party using the in-vitro BEST™ method to evaluate salt adhesion of the ureteral stents.
• A total of 30 samples from each ureteral stent family were tested in both a sterile Artificial Urine Model and a Bacterial Infection Model (n=15 in each model) for 2 weeks. Proteus mirabilis was used as the microbial challenge in the Bacterial Infection Model due to its known urease production and involvement in struvite formation.[iv]
• Urine characteristics: tested in sterile and proteus mirabilis infected environments.
• For each condition, the difference between the Tria Stent and competitor stent on mean amount of salt crystal material was assessed at the 0.05 level of significance using a (one-sided) two-sample t test

[i] Bench Test results may not necessarily be indicative of clinical performance. Data on file with Boston Scientific.

[ii] Cleveland Clinic. Ureteral Stents. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21795-ureteral-stents

[iii] Rebl H, Renner J, Kram W, et al. Prevention of Encrustation on Ureteral Stents: Which Surface Parameters Provide Guidance for the Development of Novel Stent Materials. Polymers (Basel). 2020;12(3):558. Published 2020 Mar 3. doi:10.3390/polym12030558

[iv] Kawahara T, Ito H, Terao H, et al. Ureteral stent encrustation, incrustation, and coloring: morbidity related to indwelling times. Endourology 2012;26(2):178-182

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Tweet me: .@bostonsci has been recognized with a Bronze Edison Award in the Science & Medical category for its Tria™ Ureteral Stent. Find out more about their achievement here: https://bit.ly/3aktiHu

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